Getting Started with Redzone Leagues

Welcome to Redzone Leagues!

This getting started document is intended to get your Redzone League up and running as quickly and easily as possible. It should also give you a quick preview to some of the features that are available in Redzone.

Domain Name for you League

What is a Domain Name?

If you have been on the internet more than 2 seconds, then you have likely seen a domain name. When you load www.nfl.com in your Internet browser, nfl.com is the domain name for the National Football League.

Do I need a Domain Name?

Not at all! Every Redzone League has an alternate way of being accessed using a sub-domain name such as yourleague.redzoneleagues.com. See the sub-domain name section below. If you would like to setup your own domain name so that instead of yourleague.redzoneleagues.com, people can view your site at yourleague.com, then you will have to keep reading the information in this section.

Choosing a Domain Name

One of the first things you should decide is what you would like your domain name for your league to be. Once you have decided on a domain name, you can go to a domain registrar like godaddy.com and purchase a domain name. Domain names are usually purchased on a year to year basis, and the cost associated with them is separate from Redzone Leagues.

If you can't decide on a domain name right now, you can always contact us at a later date to associate a name with your league.

Hookup up your Domain Name

Once you have your domain name, you need to point it to your Redzone League site. This part can be a little tricky if you aren't familiar with domain names, ip addresses and things of that nature. In simple terms, a domain name points a name to an IP Address, so we want to point your domain name to our servers. If your domain registrar doesn't allow you to set DNS entries, then you can have us do this for you. If this is the case, please contact Redzone technical support (support@redzoneleagues.com) and we can help you out.

IP Address of the Redzone Application Gateway is 173.230.154.248. Please set the A-Record of your domain to this.

You will not be able to access your league with your chosen domain name until we have verfied it. Until we can verify that your league domain is valid and points to our servers, you will still be able to access your league using the associated sub-domain name (subdomain.redzoneleagues.com).

Need more help with a Domain Name?

Setting up a domain name for the first time can be confusing. If you require assistance, please contact technical support (support@redzoneleagues.com) and we can help you out!

Sub-Domain name for you League

Every Redzone League can be accessed with a sub-domain name which is just a name followed by redzoneleagues.com; for example, yourleague.redzoneleagues.com, where yourleague is the the sub-domain name you choose for your league. This name is specified when you signup your league.

Email for your League

If you have purchased a domain name, you will likely want to have email addresses for your domain so that your league members can contact you and other representatives of your league. There are a few free services on the Internet offering email services for your domain. Our favorite is the one currently offered by Google and it can be found here: https://www.google.com/a/.

Signup your League

The first step when creating a new league with Redzone is to signup at http://rdtfa.redzoneleagues.com/leagues/signup. After signing up your league, you will receive an email confirmation for the signup which will contain a link to activate your new league website. Once you activate your site, you are ready to go!

First Steps with your new League

Now that you have your empty league setup, it's now time to start setting things up. The first thing you will want to do is login to your league. Load up your league (use the web address that was emailed to you, unless you already have your domain hooked up) and login with your admin account that you created during the signup process. Your login details for your account should have been emailed to you as well. You should see the login link in the upper right corner of the website.

Admin Dashboard

After logging in with your admin account, you will see an Admin link at the top of the website (Only league administrators can see this link). Click on this to bring up the Redzone Admin Dashboard.

The Dashboard is where the majority of the admin features can be found so you should familiarize yourself with it. On this page you can manage users, create new menus, add game locations for your league, add sponsors, upload files that your users can see, upload a logo, and control your season information.

League Logo

When you create your league, Redzone will automatically generate a default logo and site layout for you to use.

If you already have a logo for your league and you would like to have it on the website instead of the default, it couldn't be more easy. Under the dashboard you will see a link for Logo & Colors . On this page you can choose a file from your computer to upload to the site, and once uploaded it will display on every page of your site. Standard web formats are supported such as jpg, gif and png.

Home Page / News

All Redzone sites have a News posting feature that is located on the Home page of the website, and only the league administrators can post items here. You should post a new message in the news to welcome users to your brand new website. You can also post other league events here, or anything else you like. The news postings can be edited or deleted at anytime.

User Signup

It is recommended that everybody in your league create an account on your website via the signup link. Each user will only have to do this once, and the user account will last as long as your league website is active. A user account will be linked to all the information related to that person such as forum messages, player statistics, and anything else that can be associated with them. League administrators are also able to create new user accounts under the dashboard via the User section.

Seasons

Without a season defined for your league, you are really missing out on most of the features of the website. Without a season, you can't have teams, and without teams you can't have players, and without players you can't have stats, and so on and so forth.

One of the first things you should do is create your first season by going to the admin dashboard and selecting the link for create a new season. The creation of a season is pretty simple, just give it a name and the dates that you would like that season to be active for.

Divisions and Teams

Once a season is created, you can then define the divisions for your league. If your league is small, you might only have one division, or if you have a large league you might have several. Once the divisions are created you can begin to create teams and place them in their respective divisions.

Click on the Divisions & Teams link in the admin dashboard to begin setting up your divisions. Once selected, you will be brought to the page that will eventually show all your divisions and teams. Click the link for Add a new division to get started.

Team Signup

There are two ways you can create teams in your league. The first is to use the Division/Team page as described above. The second is to have your team representatives signup their team. Redzone allows any logged in user to register a team, however these teams will need to be approved by the administrator before they will be visible to everybody. Teams can be approved or removed on the Divisions & Teams page described above.

It is recommended that you have your teams sign themselves up. By doing so, they can enter in what their team colors are, they can add players to their roster, they can upload their team logo, and they can select which division they would like to play in. Coming soon: when a team signs up, they will have the ability to pay their team fees online.

Rosters

To assign a player to a team's roster, the player must have first created a user account on the website. Team representatives and league administrators can add players to a team's roster by going to the Teams page and selecting their team. On the team view page, you can enter in a player's name or email address which will search for that user in the database. Once a valid user is found, clicking Add Player will add that player to the roster.

Forums

One of the most popular sections of Redzone websites are the forums. Forums are a great way for league representatives to pass on information or to get feedback from their league members. It's also a way for league members to discuss things amongst one another. With Redzone, you can create as many forums as you like to separate the various types of discussions that people may have.

For users to post messages on the forum they will need to be signed up with the league.

Locations

You can create locations (fields, courts, rinks, etc.) for your league by clicking on the Locations link in the admin dashboard. From there you can create as many locations as you like, giving them each a name, address and you can even upload a map to the location. Coming soon: integration with google maps.

Why do you need my birth date?

All users must be at least 13 years of age. We require this in order to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. For more information please click here.

Looking for more detailed help?

This is the end of the getting started manual, but there is more detailed information available here.